Beer and Canada
Why write a book about Canadian beer?
To begin with, how about the fact that over the past decade, Canadians have sipped, gulped, savoured and chugged an average of two billion litres of brew per year? Or that despite the recent spate of major brewery closings, there are now more than twice as many breweries in Canada as there were in 1982? Or even that specialty beers form one of the very few alcoholic beverage markets that continues to grow well into the 1990's?The question should not be why, but rather, why has it taken so long?
What I like to call the "natural beer renaissance" has been under way in Canada for over ten years now and in full bloom since 1985. At first, the going was tough and tiny breweries blossomed sporadically across the country, taking many different forms. As time passed, however, and people's tastes adjusted to the new flavours of beer flowing out of the micro-breweries, brewery growth accelerated until, in 1993, there existed craft breweries or brewpubs in all but four provinces and one territory.
With this kind of relative stability in the industry, I decided that the time had come to offer my views on this metamorphosis of the Canadian brewing industry. The beers are rated - from the exceptional to the mundane - and, perhaps more importantly, the stories behind the breweries are presented for the record.
To fully appreciate those stories and reviews, however, it is important to have a sense of the roots of this industry that is so much a part of Canada.
Canadian historians have long been frustrated with the blasé attitude their countrymen have towards our nation's colourful past. Canadians have grown convinced as a people that the history of their country is not exciting. Indeed, the average Canadian seems to know more about the American Declaration of Independence than the Canadian Constitution.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Canada's brewing background often gets treated with the same indifference. I have frequently encountered major- and micro-brewery salespeople or management who are blissfully unaware of the storied background of their industry and in some cases, their own companies. With that kind of an attitude within the industry, how can ordinary Canadians be expected to know anything about the brewing past of their country?
The following history is not, nor is it meant to be, a definitive chronicle, for there are many good books on the market that are totally devoted to the subject. Rather, it is a short background piece designed to place the remainder of this book in perspective and perhaps serve as an incentive to the reader to delve further into this fascinating field.
I've divided the history of beer in Canada into four separate eras that I refer to as: Traditional Brewing, Prohibition, the Decline of Distinction and the Renaissance.
Great Canadian Beer Guide © Stephen Beaumont, 1994
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